The celebrations 100 years of Finnish Independence move to the Royal Festival Hall, with an all-Sibelius programme and Esa-Pekka Salonen: the highlight is soloist Vilde Frang's playing of the Violin Concerto.

Before the NY Philharmonic even arrived in San Francisco, skeptics were complaining about the 'hackneyed" repertoire they were bringing on tour. But there was nothing commonplace about their interpretations, power, technical skills or performances.

Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Philharmonia received the largest ovation I have seen for a visiting orchestra in Manchester, delighting the Bridgewater Hall with works by Sibelius, Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky.

As the audience assembled in Roy Thomson Hall on Wednesday, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Members of the orchestra were taking their seats on the stage, getting ready to tune their instruments. However, anyone paying close attention to the setting would have seen a fixture hanging high above the stage.

Starting the role of principal conductor of a new orchestra may be compared to trying out a new car. There is of course the initial thrill of the novelty of it all, testing the performance of the vehicle; how quickly it can accelerate, how smooth are the transitions from one speed to another.

Following the Philadelphia Orchestra’s stellar performance at last night’s Prom, Chief Conductor Charles Dutoit presented a second violinist with a bouquet of flowers. This unusual gesture, he explained, was a fond farewell to a man who has played in the orchestra for 50 years. During the past half-century, that violinist must have played last night’s pieces many times.

Widely acclaimed professional community orchestra New Philharmonic opened its 34th Season with an outstanding, family-friendly concert featuring both overture classics and everyone's favorite musical fairy tale, Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf.